Heard Sri Atul Bahuguna, Advocate for the petitioners as well as Sri K.P. Upadhyay, Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand/respondents.

2. The petitioners before this Court are the legal heirs of one Sri Surendra Singh Negi who as a Junior Engineer in the Public Works Department, Uttarakhand, had filed this writ petition in the year 2006 against the order of his compulsory/pre-mature retirement from service. During the pendency of the writ petition Sri Surendra Singh Negi (the petitioner) had passed away and consequently vide orders of this Court his legal heirs have been substituted who are presently before this Court as petitioner no. 1, 2 and 3 i.e. widow and the sons of the petitioner, respectively.

3. For sake of convenience Sri Surendra Singh Negi, now deceased, shall be referred to as the petitioner. The case of the petitioner is that he was initially appointed on 17.3.1970 on the post of “Draftsman” in the Public Works Department of the erstwhile State of Uttar Pradesh. Consequently, on 1.7.1997 he was promoted to the post of Junior Engineer. While he was continuing as Junior Engineer in the Public Works Department, due to his ill heath he m